Civamide (cis-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide), also known as zucapsaicin, is a stereoisomer of the chemical capsaicin which has been utilized over the last three decades to study a variety of neurophysiological processes. Civamide was previously found to be useful in the treatment of painful, inflammatory or allergic disorders, and was effective in such disorders, yet with significantly less of the localized burning and stinging associated with capsaicin's use. Such use of civamide is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,060 issued Nov. 5, 1991, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,060 chiefly distinguished between capsaicin and civamide in that compositions containing civamide were “comparable in efficacy to compositions containing capsaicin, but with significantly less local adverse effects normally associated with capsaicin.”
The applicant of this patent, however, has more recently discovered a highly novel method of providing surprisingly long-lasting pain diminishment by means of relatively short-term topical or intranasal administration of civamide. U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,060 provided for various compositions of civamide suitable for topical or intranasal administration to be administered daily on a basis of 1–4 times per day. While U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,060 and all subsequent publications on civamide indicated that civamide should be administered on a daily basis (usually several times per day), the current invention provides that a single short course of civamide administered topically or intranasally is sufficient to diminish pain in conditions such as neuralgia, painful osteoarthritis, or cluster headache for a period far in excess of the period of actual drug administration.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method of treating pain that provides long-lasting effectiveness such that painful disorders as neuralgia, osteoarthritis pain, and headache pain can be successfully diminished with either a single relatively short course of civamide administered topically or intranasally or infrequent short courses of civamide administered topically or intranasally.
The invention, thusly, includes a method comprising topical or intranasal administration of compositions of civamide (cis-8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) incorporated into solutions, suspensions, creams, ointments, lotions, gels or pastes administered for short treatment durations. Surprisingly, the method provides for prolonged diminishment of pain for periods far in excess of the course of civamide administration.